O’Neill pleads with Irish to give Declan “a bit of space”

Martin O’Neill is giving Declan Rice time to make his mind up on an Ireland or England international career and has told the fans to be patient.

O’Neill is a bright guy and rather than throw his toys out of the pram like Kevin Kilbane has responded in adult fashion to the Rice dilemma.

As Irish fans got involved in a social media moan up O’Neill said: “I think you have to give him a little bit of space, let him think.

“I don’t want to be totally fair on England but he was actually born in England, his father was born in England. Although his father is very much on our side and would love him to play for us. But he has a choice to make.

“So that’s certainly what I’d be advising, just give him a little bit of time. He has thoroughly enjoyed playing for us, it’s been great, and (if he opted for England) it’d be a disappointment to me, more so than Jack (Grealish), because he (Rice) has played the games.

Grealish didn’t play (at senior level), this is at a much further stage than Grealish ever got, absolutely. It’s disappointing at this moment but I’ll let him have a little think about it for a while.”

He added: “In terms of selling it, I think the Republic of Ireland have done just about everything to sell the country to him,” he said.

“He was generally welcomed by the players and all the fans. I am not so sure what else we can do. Obviously, it’s the country of his birth that has come calling and he has a choice.

“To play a game at international level, albeit only a friendly, that’s certainly alerted someone. I’m not so sure what else we could do.”

“(The ball) would be mostly in his court,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any harm whatsoever in living on his doorstep. We have been incredibly keen in getting him on board, we want him and I think those things are incredibly important when somebody is making a decision on that.”